Focus on God’s Work: Media
March 21, 2013
Tour the Media Department
The home office has released a third monthly Focus on God’s Work video—this one by Peter Eddington—about our media department employees who each do their very best in service to God in preaching the gospel of the Kingdom.
Mr. Eddington, operation manager for Media and Communications Services, gives a tour of the department—introducing each employee to our viewers. Putting a “face to the name” of many people you may have heard or read about, but wondered exactly what they do, will help personalize the work being done to preach the gospel of God’s Kingdom.
As earlier announced, the plan is for various managers and employees of the United Church of God to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month.
Please feel free to download this and future presentations to get a monthly update on the work being done by various departments in the Church to preach the gospel and prepare a people.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
Focus on Portuguese Work
February 28, 2013
Focus on God’s Work
The home office has released a second monthly Focus on God’s Work video—this one by Jorge de Campos about our Portuguese-language efforts.
As earlier announced, the plan is for various managers and employees of the United Church of God to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month, and we’ll also endeavor to announce them here at Inside United: Realtime.
Jorge de Campos, coordinator of our Portuguese-language areas, gives an inspiring report about these areas in the video below.
Please feel free to download this and future presentations to get a monthly update on the work being done by various departments in the Church to preach the gospel and prepare a people.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
Bible Study Webcast: The Marriage Supper and the Resurrections
January 22, 2013
The Cincinnati East, Ohio, congregation of the United Church of God is continuing its bi-weekly Bible study Wednesday night, January 23. The study begins at 7:30 p.m. ET and is available live via webcast.
The series on the book of Revelation continues with chapters 19 and 20. Chapter 19 is a prophecy about the return of Jesus Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb. It also talks about the fate of the beast and the false prophet. Chapter 20 covers the timeframe of the 1,000-year millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and it also covers the resurrections. It ends with the judgment upon those people who refuse to follow Jesus Christ.
Join us for in-depth study into these topics and more on Wednesday. Presenters will be Steve Myers and Peter Eddington.
Plan to attend in person, or you can listen online. Also, please note that we have a mobile option. You can view the Bible study using your smartphone.
Steve Myers—Pastor, United Church of God Cincinnati East
Feast of Tabernacles 2013: Portugal
November 9, 2012
We are pleased to announce that the United Church of God will be hosting the Feast of Tabernacles in 2013 in the fishing and vacation village of Costa de Caparica, just outside Lisbon, Portugal, in addition to the site in Maloca de Moscou, Brazil.
This site near Lisbon has been very popular for the Feast in past years and we are pleased that God has again opened the doors to hold the Festival there.
A fact even more exciting is that the hotel has granted us the same prices as those that we had in 2010.
Additional details and information on how to register may be obtained by accessing the file 2013 Feast of Tabernacles in Portugal which is at the following link: membros.revistaboanova.org/feast.
Should you have any further questions about the Portuguese feast site, in Brazil or in Portugal, please contact the festival coordinator, Jorge de Campos, at jorge_decampos@ucg.org.
Who Are the Two Witnesses?
October 29, 2012
The Cincinnati East, Ohio, congregation of the United Church of God is continuing its bi-weekly Bible study Wednesday night, October 31. The study begins at 7:30 p.m. ET and is available live via webcast.
The series on the book of Revelation continues with chapters 11 and 12. Who are the two witnesses? Who is the great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his head?
Join us for in-depth study into these topics and more on Wednesday. Presenters will be Darris McNeely and Steve Myers.
Plan to attend in person, or you can listen online. Also, please note that we have a mobile option. You can view the Bible study using your smartphone.
Steve Myers—Pastor, United Church of God Cincinnati East
Live Bible Study on Book of Revelation
August 20, 2012
The Cincinnati East, Ohio, congregation of the United Church of God is continuing its bi-weekly Bible study Wednesday night, August 22. The study begins at 7:30 p.m. ET and is available live via webcast.
The series on the book of Revelation continues with chapter 3 verse 14, going on into chapters 4 and 5 . Join us for the ongoing study into one of the most exciting and enlightening books of the Bible. Presenters will be Steve Myers and Darris McNeely.
Plan to attend in person, or you can listen online. Also, please note that we have a mobile option. You can view the Bible study using your smartphone.
Steve Myers—Pastor, United Church of God Cincinnati East
Revelation Continued: Live Bible Study Webcast
August 8, 2012
The Cincinnati East, Ohio, congregation of the United Church of God is continuing its bi-weekly Bible study Wednesday night, August 8. The study begins at 7:30 p.m. ET and is available live via webcast.
The series on the book of Revelation continues tonight. Join us for a fascinating study into one of the most exciting and enlightening books of the Bible. Presenters will be Randy Stiver and John McClain.
Plan to attend in person, or you can listen online. Also, please note that we have a mobile option. You can view the Bible study using your smartphone.
Steve Myers—Pastor, United Church of God Cincinnati East
Print Advertising to Reach 13.2 Million Households in 2012-2013
August 2, 2012
We are very pleased to report that between July 2012 and March 2013 the United Church of God will mail Good News subscription advertisements to 13,200,000 households in the United States at a cost of under 2¢ each. This household quantity nearly doubles the 7,800,000 we reached during the previous fiscal year.
Through this card pack mailing effort we expect to add nearly 65,000 new readers at about $3.00 each. Potential subscribers will be offered a one-year subscription to The Good News and at least one or more of the following ten booklets:
- Are We Living in the Time of the End?
- Heaven and Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach?
- How to Understand the Bible
- Jesus Christ: The Real Story
- Life’s Ultimate Question: Does God Exist?
- The Book of Revelation Unveiled
- The Middle East in Bible Prophecy
- The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy
- You Can Understand Bible Prophecy
- What Happens After Death?
During the past six fiscal years (June 2006 through June 2012) the United Church of God has reached 78.5 million households through print media campaigns. These annual efforts have included the use of card packs, co-op mailers, sampling programs, magazine inserts, package inserts and brochure take-one programs.
As always, we greatly appreciate your prayers for God’s blessings on the Church’s efforts to publish and broadcast the Gospel throughout the world.
John LaBissoniere—Print Advertising Manager, Media and Communications Services
June 8 Letter from Chairman Rhodes
June 8, 2012
Dear Brethren,
The year 2012 will long be remembered throughout Britain and the Commonwealth as the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the throne.
Diane and I were privileged to be in London for the highlights of the occasion—the River Pageant on the Thames, the special service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, and the procession ending with the Queen and members of the royal family appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The last (and only) Diamond Jubilee was in 1897 when Queen Victoria was on the throne. Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee has been described as “the climax of Empire.” The new century soon saw Britain in terminal decline, and the empire fall apart.
History often is simply fulfilled prophecy.
In 1897 when Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was being celebrated, Great Britain was at the height of its power, a direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis, chapter 48, when “he [the biblical patriarch Jacob] set Ephraim before Manasseh” (verse 20). Victoria was the Queen-Empress who ruled over the prophesied “multitude of nations” (verse 19), a quarter of the world’s people.
At the time of Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne 55 years later, that empire was still largely intact. It was soon to be dismantled, again fulfilling prophecy. The multitude of nations was Britain’s strength; it’s dismantling could only result in weakness. Britain is not the great power it once was. Manasseh replaced Ephraim as the global superpower and international policeman.
This is exactly as God said it would be.
Prior to visiting England, we were in South Africa, another part of the world that has seen prophecy fulfilled in recent years. We were invited down there to spend Pentecost weekend with most of the church members at a resort in Drakensville, where I spoke to the church on both the weekly Sabbath and the Day of Pentecost. Behind me when I spoke was one of the most magnificent backdrops ever seen in a church meeting hall—the Drakensburg Mountains. To everyone’s amusement the mountains were not there Sunday morning—obscured by a mist that hid them from our view!
The church in South Africa is growing, and I was able to talk with some of the new members there. Their stories of how they came into the United Church of God were very interesting and most encouraging.
Only 20 years ago, South Africa was ruled by people of Israelite descent. Prior to 1961 it was one of the “multitude of nations” with Queen Elizabeth as Head of State. Then it went its own way. In 1994 the ruling Nationalist Party handed power over to the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela became President. Jacob Zuma is the third native African president. The country is a very western-oriented nation, with a great deal of prosperity.
But the change in 1994 was a fulfillment of prophecy—the end of Israelite domination. The blessings to Israel were prophesied to be withdrawn as the people turned away from God. Deuteronomy chapter 28 is a warning to the modern Israelites of the negative consequences of sin. The Israelites were told they would lose control of their nations to non-Israelites: “He shall be the head and you shall be the tail” (verse 44).
The fulfillment of prophecy is very real to Church members in South Africa. But fulfilled prophecy has not stopped with the end of the British Empire. Further developments are taking place that once again shows the hand of God in world affairs.
Although the news in Britain was dominated by the Jubilee, there was also news of Europe’s ongoing serious economic problems. England is going through a period of austerity and economic decline, with rising unemployment a major problem. But the 17-member eurozone is in deeper trouble. There is speculation that bankrupt Greece may pull out of the single currency. Spanish banks appear on the verge of collapse. Some even think that the euro as a currency is doomed.
What is clear is that the continuing financial crisis that began well over two years ago has had one significant prophetic result—Germany has emerged as European leader.
Historian Niall Ferguson predicted in an interview in the London Sunday Times on May 20 that only a federal super state could save Europe and the euro. “I am not a federalist,” he says, “But the costs of the single currency disintegrating are really so high and would impact so many people, that the only responsible thing for me to do is to argue urgently for the next step to a federal Europe. I see no alternative at the moment that isn’t a great deal worse.”
Germanforeignpolicy.com led with the following startling paragraph on May 21: “In the run-up to new elections in Greece, the German elite is discussing various scenarios involving the use of force to ensure control over Athens, including the establishment of a protectorate or the deployment of ‘protection forces’ in that southern European country.”
England may soon have a German-dominated European super state on its doorstep.
Please note I said “England” and not “Britain” or the “United Kingdom.” In two years, Scotland is set to vote on independence. A “yes” vote would result in an isolated England, surrounded by potentially hostile powers, weaker than it’s ever been since the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth over 400 years ago.
Hosea 5 reminds us that Ephraim, Manasseh and Judah will all fall at the same time, within a period of 30 days (a “New Moon”). ‘The pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them…They have dealt treacherously with the Lord. For they have begotten pagan children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage” (Hosea 5:5, 7).
Israel here most likely refers to the U.S., as it is the chief nation of modern Israel. Remember that Jacob (Israel) said: “Let my name be named upon them” (Genesis 48:16), referring to the two sons of Joseph—Ephraim and Manasseh.
With a European super state about to rise, it’s not too difficult to see how England can fall. But what about the United States?
A read of postwar British history shows that the loss of empire was primarily due to the country’s financial problems. The U.S. is now going through exactly the same problems Britain faced in the aftermath of war—having to face the consequences of military overspending. The need to balance the budget will become more urgent, and military spending will inevitably be cut, curtailing global American power just as it did British power.
The scene is clearly set for the rise of a European super state and the collapse of American power. History in the making—prophecy fulfilled!
The good news is that this new superpower won’t last long and will be the final human-led government before the return of Jesus Christ to sit on David’s throne, the very throne that was the center of the world’s attention last weekend.
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast…These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of Lords and King of kings” (Rev 17:12, 14).
It won’t be long before we can say that the Kingdom of God is prophecy fulfilled!
Sincerely,
Melvin Rhodes—Chairman, United Church of God, an International Association
UCG Launches New Website Search Tool
July 31, 2012
Today we are launching a new feature on the www.ucg.org website: a new search tool powered by Google.
This new feature is much faster than the old search engine and we believe it will provide you with more relevant and comprehensive results. Here is an example of a site search for “jesus christ.”
As you see above, as well as text results, responses can now contain images and graphics of relevant search material. And, the tool can also search and index PDF files on our site. The feature we are most excited about is the ability to search more than just the main ucg.org site. This new search will return results from bible.ucg.org, feast.ucg.org and uyc.ucg.org.
Plus, there are soon some more changes on the way that we hope will improve your experience on our main United Church of God website. So please try out the new search and tell others about it too!
Tory Trone—Web Developer
July 31, 2012 Posted by United Church of God | Media and Communications, UCGIA on the Web, Uncategorized | bible, bible commentary, google search, search, ucg, ucgia, united church of god | 6 Comments